


Empty

by Moirica



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Spoilers C2E14, put yourself in Molly’s shoes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 05:44:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14325858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moirica/pseuds/Moirica
Summary: Waking up in a shallow grave isn’t fun.





	Empty

Pain. 

That is the first and only thing you are aware of. Just pain. Everywhere hurts but more than anything the fierce burning of your lungs. Your mouth opens reflexively but there is no air, just clogging, choking dirt. 

You fight it. Your body, weak though it is, fights against what you now realize is a cloying pressure around you. This can’t be everything there is. Just pain until everything fades to nothingness again but you know that if something doesn’t change soon that will be exactly what happens.

And then something does change.

Your hand breaks through the resistance around it and is met with nothing but a cool, emptiness. 

Air.

Beyond the pain is the faintest glimmer of hope. You can end the pain if you reach the air. You don’t really understand how you know this but you do. So you fight harder and your other hand breaks through next. After that it is easier to drag your body up and up until you are free.

You gasp and nearly choke on dirt again. Coughs wrack your body until there is no dirt left and instead you are gasping in cold, damp air. It’s the best thing you’ve ever felt. It doesn’t matter that it’s the only thing you’ve felt besides pain, it’s still the best.

You aren’t sure how long you sit there, half buried in the earth, just breathing. At first your breaths are rough and gasping and desperate for air. They soon settle though and you just breathe and revel in being alive.

Eventually you focus more on what’s around you. A dark, grey sky. Towering trees that seem to crowd around the small clearing you are in. Wet, dark earth that you are still sitting partially buried in. When this realization hits you, you frantically pull the rest of yourself from the ground. Not stopping until you are sitting against the trunk of a tree, as far as you could drag yourself from the hole you were once buried in.

You don’t know why you were there.

No, more than that.

You don’t know anything. Your name. Your past. Why you were here. You know what some things are but you don’t know why you know them. There is no context to them in your mind. They just bounce around in the empty space of your head as if searching for something that is not there.

You stare at your dirt crusted hands. The skin beneath is a pale lavender colour. On one hand an ominous red eye looks back at you, one on the palm and one on the back. Looking up your arm there is at least one more there too. You have no clue what they are but they scare you. They stare at you, judging you for not knowing.

Time passes. You aren’t sure how long you sit there, staring at an eye that just stares back at you. Pain comes back, this time from your stomach. You need to do something about it but you aren’t sure what. Somehow you summon the same strength that you found to claw yourself out of the ground and you pick yourself up. 

You pick a direction and start moving. The further away you get from the hole in the ground the better you feel. 

You walk and walk and walk. Eventually the woods open up to another clearing. This one is long and narrow though, winding through the trees. A road. You think that is maybe what this is.

And luck is maybe on your side because only moments after you step out onto the road a wagon pulls around the corner. Not just one wagon but quite a few of them. You stand there frozen, a deer that has been caught in someone’s sight, too startled to move. 

They come closer and you just stare. Words reach your ears and it’s like fireflies of light in your mind. You recognize them but yet you can’t seem to grasp them. They try to speak to you but you don’t know how to answer. 

Strangely these people don’t just leave you there. A blanket is placed around your shoulders and you are led to a wagon. There are timid smiles and friendly sounding words. You are sat next to a little girl and she nervously gives you a smile.

You travel with them and there is warmth and food and drink. Words fill your head and you start to make sense of them. One word stands out to you, more than anything else you hear.

Empty.

That is what you are. Empty. Hollow inside. No past. No name. No you.

Empty. Empty. Empty.

You say it because it’s the only thing you can say. Despite meaning the lack of something it comes to define you. You are empty. The people around you, circus folk as you have come to learn, even start referring to you that way since you have told them nothing else. 

Empty. You are empty but at least you are. You can work with that. You start to think that you can be something. Whatever you want to be. You don’t know who you were but maybe that doesn’t matter. You can be whatever you want to be now. Anything. Anyone. 

Empty no more.

**Author's Note:**

> Had to get this out after the latest episode of Critical Role (14). Thank you Taliesin for such an intriguing character.
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this strange little ficlet.


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